Russell's heartache: It's too little, too late

He says he’s made a stupid mistake and is desperate to reunite with his family, but Danielle’s talking to lawyers.

He may be selling his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team but the incredible gesture won’t win heartbroken Russell Crowe back his estranged wife Danielle Spencer. This is what numerous friends of the couple who spoke exclusively to Woman’s Day are saying, declaring Russell’s overture “too little too late” in what is shaping up to become a true Hollywood-style divorce.

“It’s pretty simple, I have to make more time for my family,” Russell, 48, says of his decision to step back from the team friends say his wife so often complained came before her and their two sons, Charlie, 8, and Tennyson, 6. In an email to Channel Nine, Russell says he has learned his lesson that all work and no time for family caused problems in his nine-year marriage. “I have to address personally how busy I made my life outside of my actual job,” he writes. “If I have any chance of keeping my family together, I have to simplify my life where I can.”

He’s also promised to undergo relationship counselling in a bid to get Danielle to hold off on the divorce papers. “Russell doesn’t want his sons to be raised in a broken home,” an insider reports. “He’s even agreed to see a marriage counsellor if that’s what Danielle wants.” Russell took a break from his usual Tweets about exercise to state he now realises he has been too preoccupied with his career.

After wrapping the biblical epic Noah last week, he wrote: “Starting on another film set tomorrow [thriller A Winter’s Tale – his fourth film this year]. I need to go home & be with my children. Cannot believe how fkd (sic) up my schedule has become this year.” However, it appears his words are falling on deaf ears. Those close to the couple say Danielle, 43, has not been won over.